English Pronunciation: Tips and Tricks
Why is English Pronunciation So Important ?
English pronunciation as part of speaking skills is often feared by many people. Many are reluctant to deepen this skill because they worry that their pronunciation is wrong. Whereas the best way to improve speaking skills, as part of language ability, is to make a lot of conversation. If you have a bad English pronunciation, you will definitely get involved in different awkward situations, such as:
Negative Impression
Poor English pronunciation not only gives the wrong impression, but it may also make you feel insecure, which makes it more difficult for you to communicate.
Misunderstanding
Even if it's not your intention, bad English pronunciation might make you sound nasty and your friendships or or romantic relationships may suffer as a result of this.
Causing Irritation
You will have to repeat your conversation again when you do not have a good English pronunciation and people will start avoiding having communication
How to Improve Your English Pronunciation ?
There are so many ways that you can choose to train your English pronunciation effectively. It involves various oral activities: how a sound produced by the mouth can form the proper pronunciation. A person’s ability to make these sounds can be trained in such a way that, eventually, it can produce a pronunciation that can be understood and used in communication. Here are some tips that you can try in practice:
1. Practice More
Starting with good intentions, we recommend you often take the time to practice a lot – that is the first and foremost tip.
2. Record a video yourself
The next tip is to create content in the form of videos. Whether it is a monologue like a vlog, tutorial, etc., or dialogue like a podcast, interview, or conversation, all of them can help improve your pronunciation!
3. Speak as much as you can
It is impossible to learn pronunciation without practicing using it within a context. Whether it is in the form of personal interaction, or public speaking, you must dare to voice your skills.
4. Learn with English language center
Take an English course that can measure your various forms of practice in a scheme that will make it more effective – that is what you can get from Big Ben Academy English Club. For intermediate and advanced learner, you can go for our Intensive English Programme (IEP). We can help you have proper English pronunciation in no time – we guarantee it!
Tips and Tricks to Practice English pronunciation
Watch Video: Webinar: Improve Your English Pronunciation In Under 15 Mins
Sounds
As discussed above, pronunciation is basically the sounds produced by the mouth. Therefore, to have good pronunciation, you can start by breaking down the sounds that make up the pronunciation of a word.
Word Stress
Every word in English has its own role in the sentence: it is called a part of speech. It is also closely related to the meaning to be conveyed. Furthermore, the stress on each word’s pronunciation will differ based on their part of speech. So make sure you understand the stressing according to the role of the words you want to convey.
Sentence Stress
The existence of sentence stress will certainly be closely related to the meaning – if it is not accompanied by a good delivery method, there is a high possibility of ambiguity. Each punctuation will cause different stress in the sentence, so we suggest you understand the production of sentence stress.
Weak Forms
The existence of weak and strong forms in sentences is also closely related to pronunciation. Some words will have different pronunciations between their strong and weak forms. Thus, please pay more attention to it, especially for those who want a native-like pronunciation.
Intonation
Accents are distinct forms of intonation. They will also affect the appearance and existence of various pronunciation-related aspects. Just master the arts of intonation, including the accent, so your pronunciation becomes clearer and easier to understand.
Linking
In some cases, some words can be joined to shorten pronunciation efforts: this is called linking. The use of linking in pronunciation is very often identified with the highest ability in pronunciation because its use often appears in the conversational activities of natives. Therefore, practice using your linking!
Here are some examples of “English Pronunciation”. Let’s try !
How to pronounce ‘Croissant’?
The Croissant pronunciation has two forms, and both are often debated as to which one is correct: the English pronunciation and the French one. The easiest way to practice pronunciation is to understand the pronunciation of each word based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
For English pronunciation, the reading method described by the IPA is /krəˈsɑnt/. It reads like ‘kruh·saant’. As for the French pronunciation itself, it will be quite different, whereas its IPA will be: /ˈkwæs.ɒ̃/ – sounded like ‘kwásɔn’.
How to pronounce 'flour'?
This Flour has an easier pronunciation than the previous one. Linguistically, the word ‘flour’ is a homophone to the word ‘flower’: this means that they are pronounced the same way. The IPA of this word is /ˈflou(ə)r/; ?. it can be read as ‘flau·ur’. Regarding the variation, for English Americans, the alveolar thrill /-r/ sound will be voiced; while the UK version tends to be more silent.
A Proper English Pronunciation is The Key To Master English Language
Our mission is to take part in student’s journey to success. We provide student’s from all over the world with the tools to express themselves with confidence in an English speaking environment. Our goal is to promote intercultural respect between learners from diverse backgrounds and to enable them to fulfill their personal potential on a global stage.If this is what also happened to you, do not worry. Thus, stay tuned and choose us as Malaysia’s best English courses – Big Ben Academy, Your Passport to the Future.
